Ron Roenicke remembers his first MLB home run against Tom Seaver

Following the news of Hall of Famer Tom Seaver’s death on Wednesday, Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke shared a unique perspective.

On Sunday, June 20, 1982, a 37-year-old Seaver was making the start for the Cincinnati Reds against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Roenicke was 23, in his second big league season and hitting third for the Dodgers.

He took a swing off Seaver and felt like he got lucky, as the ball barely squeaked over the fence for his first career big league home run.

After the game, Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda collected the baseball and brought it to the visitor’s clubhouse.

“Tommy Lasorda said, ‘Give me the ball, and I’m going to take it over and have him sign it,’” Roenicke said. “I said, no. I was worried about it. He said, ‘No, I’ll give it to him.’ So (Seaver) wrote on it, ‘To Ron, why me? Tom Seaver.’

“Great career. From what I heard, great person. I didn’t know him personally other than just to meet him, but I heard so many good things about him. And I know he’s been sick recently for the last few years. Tough when you lose someone like that.”

Roenicke went on to hit 17 career homers in eight big league seasons, but never forgot the first one.

“And it was probably a lucky home run, too,” he said. “It was about a foot fair and a foot over the fence. He was still pretty tough even in those later years. But I would have loved to have watched him pitch. We didn’t have a lot of TV back then. Games now, you can pick and choose what games you want to see. That wasn’t the case when I first came up to the big leagues. So I really didn’t get to see him when he was really good, and that’s unfortunate, because that type of pitcher, those Hall of Fame guys, and the numbers that he put up a couple of those years and the win totals were just amazing.”

Seaver died at the age of 75 on Monday due to complications from COVID-19, according to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also battling Lewy body dementia.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3jCORCz